Chanath Cha

Chanath Cha's birth occurred around 31 BBY. During the Imperial Era, specifically when she was twelve years of age, Chanath Cha, along with her mother Ramat and her father Bhada, accepted payment for a contract to eliminate Darth Vader while he was on Cabarria. They lured Vader into a bar by spreading rumors of a Jedi's presence. The Cha family prepared an ambush, waiting for him to enter. They deployed ion grenades to disable all weaponry within the cantina, while Chanath attempted to use her tractor rifle to seize Vader's lightsaber. However, Vader employed the Force to snatch the lightsaber from the air. The strain of their opposing forces caused the lightsaber hilt to shatter, leaving behind only the red kyber crystal. Recognizing their disadvantage against the Sith Lord, they activated their shields and escaped the bar.

The trio boarded a speeder bike and attempted to flee. Vader pursued them on his own speeder, effortlessly deflecting their blaster fire. They managed to evade him for a short time, but Vader ultimately crashed a large vehicle into their path, causing their speeder to crash. Using a Force choke on Chanath, Vader demanded to know who had ordered his assassination. They revealed that an anonymous bounty with an exorbitant reward had been posted on the Hunter Net. Ramat, a skilled slicer, offered to uncover the identity of their employer in exchange for her daughter's life. When they insisted that he release Chanath first, Vader refused, threatening to kill them all. However, the Chas countered that they would be together even in death, rendering his threats ineffective.

Slightly impressed, the Dark Lord of the Sith demanded proof that Ramat could fulfill her part of the bargain. She demonstrated her ability by tracing the bounty's signal back to Coruscant. Chanath was released as agreed, and the bounty hunters made their daughter swear that she would not seek revenge against the Dark Lord, a promise Vader chose to honor. To finalize the deal, Ramat provided Vader with the requested information, revealing that the bounty originated from the highest levels of the Republic Executive Building on Coruscant.

Subsequently, Vader murdered Chanath's parents, an act she claimed extinguished her heart. Despite her oath not to seek vengeance, she interpreted the death of her heart as the end of her promise, and she began to hunt Vader in retaliation. She became a favored operative of Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine, hoping it would bring her closer to Vader. Cha carried out actions she deemed "horrible" at Palpatine's command, all for the chance of confronting Vader again. However, she never encountered him during her time serving the Emperor. At some point, she shared a romantic history with Lobot, with some lingering tension stemming from Lobot's decision to collaborate with Lando Calrissian.

Shortly after Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra was captured by the Rebel Alliance on Vrogas Vas, Cha and various other bounty hunters learned of a substantial bounty offered for Aphra's return to a client who had concealed their identity. Unbeknownst to Cha, the client was actually Vader, the very person she sought to avenge her parents' deaths.

At a later time, Cha was hired by an adversary of the crime boss Big String—who was based in a volcanic fortress on the Inner Rim planet Amethia Prime—with the objective of destroying his fortress and capturing String. Cha traveled to the ocean world and launched an assault on the fortress, navigating its structure and demolishing it with her nearly indestructible armor and rocket boots, until the entire complex was engulfed in a fiery explosion. Cha then turned her attention to Big String, who was attempting to escape in a boat with three bodyguards.

Cha dove underwater, accelerating towards the craft and launching herself upwards through it, destroying its engine and capsizing it, effectively ending String's escape. Cha confronted String, who desperately asked why she had destroyed the "empire" he had spent twenty cycles building. After identifying herself, Cha informed the criminal that it was a contracted assignment. Cha then engaged the guards in hand-to-hand combat, swiftly defeating them. Cha persuaded String to drop his blaster, allowing her to hoist him up by his belt and use her rocket boots to deliver the bounty.

However, while at cloud level, Cha received a holographic comlink call from Palpatine. Cha apologized to String and released him, not wanting to ignore a call from her most important client. Palpatine appeared via holoprojector and informed Cha that his yacht, the Imperialis, had been stolen from an Imperial shipyard in the Castell system. He tasked Cha with recovering it, expressing his lack of faith in the military forces assigned to the task, stating that he needed a needle, and that Cha was the sharpest needle he had. The Emperor provided Cha with a unique starship to assist in recovering the Imperialis, and told the bounty hunter that success would bring great reward—but if the yacht could not be recovered, Cha needed to destroy it, to prevent the "personal items" it contained from falling into the wrong hands.

Cha immediately traveled to Imperial Facility 729-D, a classified Imperial space station housing the vessel Palpatine had promised her. She examined the exterior of the ship, noting its unique design. O-66, a droid sent by Palpatine to assist Cha, appeared and explained that the ship, the Scimitar, had been used for a long period of time by "special" owners. O-66 informed Cha that the technical readouts for the Scimitar were available, but Cha ordered O-66 to paraphrase the instructions. After O-66 complied, Cha removed the droid's head for safety; O-66 could no longer wield a weapon to attack Cha if that was its programming. Cha then piloted the Star Courier into space, where O-66 explained that the Scimitar was configured to track the Imperialis's hyperdrive signature through space; a feat Cha had deemed impossible. However, the Imperialis's signature was very similar to that of a neutron star—which, if the Scimitar tracked instead, would kill Cha when it emerged from hyperspace. Cha remained unfazed and entered hyperspace.

Shortly after, the Scimitar emerged from hyperspace near the Imperialis in deep space. Cha spacewalked to the Emperor's yacht, and with O-66's assistance, located an airlock, sliced through it, and rushed through the Imperialis to find the hijackers. Cha needed the ship's operation system codes from O-66 to lock the escape codes, preventing the hijackers from escaping. O-66 initially refused, but relented after Cha revealed that she had planted a pulse bomb in the droid's neck. Cha disabled the hijackers' only escape option and soon encountered one of the thieves: the Ugnaught Korin Pers. Pers claimed to be the sole thief of the Imperialis, but Cha knew better, and was proven correct when one of Per's partners appeared and attempted to ambush Cha. Cha easily outmaneuvered the thief and was shocked to recognize him as her old friend Calrissian. Cha removed her helmet, allowing Calrissian to recognize her as well. Calrissian was equally surprised and greeted her with a kiss to the hand.

Cha decided to activate the ship's self-destruct to complete her mission, but hesitated when Lando revealed that Lobot was aboard in a bacta tank, recovering from a wound sustained in a fight with Imperial Guards. However, two clone aliens, Aleksin and Pavol, who had assisted Lando in stealing the ship, attacked them, having been corrupted by the Emperor's Sith artifacts stored on the ship. Cha sealed a door to slow them down and activated the ship's self-destruct, instructing Lando to retrieve Lobot so they could escape with her. She contacted O-66 and ordered him to pick them up in the Scimitar, but O-66 refused, having deactivated the explosive she had planted. Pavol then attacked her, but she killed him. With no other escape route, Lobot used his implants to slice the ship's systems and reactivate the escape pods. Unfortunately, due to his injuries and incomplete healing, Lobot's implants took over his mind. Cha bid farewell to Lando and Lobot and escaped in a pod before the ship exploded.

By 3 ABY, Cha had formed a group known as the Orphans, consisting of herself, Ladybright, Sear, and Imara Vex. The team aligned themselves with the crime boss Qi'ra, who sought to destroy Sidious and Vader, furthering Cha's personal mission of revenge against Vader.

After "The Archivist" and Kho Phon Farrus failed to unlock the Fermata Cage and attracted the attention of Vader and Sidious, with Vader being dispatched to retrieve the Cage, Qi'ra also sent the Orphans to rescue Qi'ra's allies and secure the Fermata Cage. Upon arriving at the planet, they successfully prevented Vader from killing the two. Cha then revealed her identity to Vader, declaring her intention to kill him and avenge her parents. She instructed Vex and Ladybright to return to her ship, the Siroto, with the Fermata Cage and Qi'ra's allies, while she and Sear engaged Vader in combat. During their fight against the Sith Lord, Vader informed Cha that she would fail to avenge her parents or Qi'ra, as the Sith Lords had previously believed her to be dead, and that all she would accomplish was her own demise. Cha's surprise at Vader mentioning Qi'ra inadvertently revealed to Vader that Qi'ra was still alive, news he stated his Master would be eager to hear.

Sear and Cha then attacked Vader, but the Sith Force pushed Sear into the wreckage of Kho Phon Farrus' machine, which had housed the Fermata Cage, killing her and leaving Cha to face Vader alone. Vader then taunted Cha, stating that all her allies were gone and questioning her remaining tactics. He challenged her to demonstrate the training she claimed to have undergone in preparation for their fight. At that moment, Vex fired on Vader, hitting his hand, and Cha informed Vader that not all of her allies were gone as he had claimed. In response, Vader used the Force to knock Vex off the Siroto and into a jungle. While the two continued to fight, Ladybright contacted Qi'ra, attempting to persuade her to unleash the Dawn Fleet to rescue Cha, a request Qi'ra denied. Ladybright then defied Qi'ra's orders to return to Dawnfall Base and attempted to assist Cha. As Cha saw the Siroto heading back towards her, she insisted that they leave, which they did. Unbeknownst to Cha, Ladybright had been destroyed by the Archivist, who then took control of the Siroto and departed. With the Siroto gone, Cha declared it good, and Vader stabbed her in the chest, killing her.

After Cha's death, Qi'ra and Cadeliah, who were at Dawnfall Base, discussed Qi'ra's refusal to send the Dawn Fleet to rescue Cha. Cadeliah correctly deduced that Qi'ra did not send the fleet because she did not want to reveal her forces to Emperor Palpatine. Qi'ra also stated that another reason was that her forces were dwindling and she needed to protect them. Qi'ra then informed Cadeliah that while Cha believed she knew how her story would end, she was mistaken and had merely been a character in Qi'ra's own story. Sometime after the fall of Crimson Dawn, the Archivist recorded the events of Qi'ra's attempts to destroy the Sith in a holocron. In her holocron, the Archivist recalled the time that Cha had saved her from Vader, crediting her for the fact that she had lived. She also described her as very skilled and brave.

Chanath Cha was a human female bounty hunter characterized by her brown skin, black hair, and dark eyes. She commonly wore a helmet with a T-shaped visor and armor. Cha was a famous bounty hunter, often hired to perform dangerous and sensitive missions by some of the most influential figures in the galaxy, including Emperor Palpatine. Cha had little patience for O-66's tedious nature and once decapitated him. She disliked long-winded explanations. Cha also did not believe in win or lose situations but qualified them as success versus failure.

Cha respected Lando enough to spare his life and conceal his involvement in the theft of the Emperor's yacht Imperialis. To protect him and Lobot, she chose to destroy the ship, following the Emperor's orders. Cha was unwilling to risk trouble with the Empire, particularly Darth Vader, the Emperor's enforcer. Cha also once harbored romantic feelings for Lobot but parted ways after he became close with Lando. While Cha was skilled at coercion, she once mistakenly revealed that she had planted a pulse bomb on O-66. The cunning O-66 outsmarted her by removing the bomb and later taunted Chanath for not keeping it a secret.

Chanath was a skilled warrior who utilized rocket boots. She was proficient in unarmed combat and also wielded a blaster. Cha's armor and rocket boots were also capable of operating underwater. On one occasion, Cha defeated the lightsaber-wielding Pavol with a knife.

Chanath Cha made her first appearance in the 2015 Marvel Comics series Star Wars: Lando. She was created by Charles Soule, with artwork by Alex Maleev, and colors by Paul Mounts.